The Matters of Marriage and Men
by soulofair
Summary: When Liz decides to take charge of her life, Jack doesn't agree with her choices. Cross-posted to my LJ- same username. I do not own the rights to 30 Rock or the characters.


Jack Donaghy thought he had finally figured Liz Lemon out. He knew from the first moment he saw her that she was going to be a challenge that would reap great rewards. He was accurate in his prediction of her weight, about the knitting thing, and about her work-centered lifestyle.

But now, nearly six years after meeting Elizabeth Lemon, Jack wasn't sure if he was as accurate as he had once thought. She was now with someone that he had thought she hated, someone who was her complete and utter polar opposite. She was now marrying this man, and Jack wasn't sure why.

"Why?" he asked as he held up a wedding invitation after he had barged into Liz's office one Wednesday morning.

"Why?" she echoed as she pulled the earbuds from her ears and let them drop onto her desktop.

He nodded.

"He's actually not that bad. Sure, we still disagree about a lot of things, but he's relatively normal, requires very little maintenance, and is willing to be a house-husband with a part-time job. What more can a girl ask for?" she answered.

"You're not in love with a man that you're marrying."

"It takes a lot more than just love to make a marriage, Jack. I may be socially incompetent, but I'm not that socially incompetent. I want to get married… I want someone who will be there if I need them. I am so tired of going home to an empty apartment. I'm so tired of feeling like I'll be stuck in this endless cycle of loneliness until they find my body somewhere in this building, clinging to a bag of Sabor de Soledad. Wesley is far from perfect, but hell, he asked me to marry him. And it's not even for a green card. He seriously wants to marry me."

"Do you want to marry him?"

"Maybe not for the same reasons he wants to marry me, but I'm willing to adapt."

"What happened to Mike Dexter?"

"NASA is basically losing all of its funding… Mike Dexter is going to be unemployed, so it's not even like I'd be married to an actual astronaut."

"You're giving up, just like that?"

"Jack, I'm not giving up. I'm moving on. It's not going to happen like I fantasized. This is reality, and I have a real dude, a real life, and a really awesome opportunity to be married, to have that stability I've been looking forward to for a very long time. He's my plan B."

"What do you mean?"

"We're going to start trying to have kids as soon as possible. If things go south for the show, which is certainly going to happen at some point, I'll just become a stay-at-home mom and become a free-lance writer. And besides… true love just doesn't happen when you first meet someone… it takes years and years to develop into true love. I see myself developing that with Wesley in the future, and I'm excited about that. There is passion there; the hatred indicated that."

"I think you're fooling yourself."

"And I think you're not being a very good friend."

"By telling you that you're making a mistake?"

Liz eyed him warily. "Like I have done for you in the past?"

"Have I ever not taken your advice?"

"In each situation that has come up and I have advised against it: no. You haven't gone through with the plans you had. But the fact that you keep getting yourself into situations like that, where I have to tell you that you're making a mistake, tells me that you haven't really taken my advice."

"Don't follow my footsteps then."

"So… that means marry Wesley?"

"Wha—… no. It means don't marry Wesley. Don't marry him."

"Why?"

"You could do so much better."

"Find me a guy and I'll consider it."

"What?"

Liz stood up from her desk. "Find me a better guy, someone who you think will sweep me off of my feet and make me a better person, and make me complete… you know, all those things that people say happen when they find THE one."

"Sure. I'll go make some phone calls."

Jack turned to walk out of the room. He almost turned back to say something else to Liz, but refrained. Liz sensed that their conversation wasn't done, but didn't make any motion to keep Jack from walking out of the room.

They both knew Jack would never find anyone better for Liz because the best one was already taken.


End file.
